Rand Paul wants to know if he was spied on, too

https://twitter.com/RandPaul"I have formally requested from the WH and the Intel Committees info on whether I was surveilled by Obama admin and or the Intel community!""Did the Obama admin go after presidential candidates, members of Congress, journalists, clergy, lawyers, fed judges?" "Did the Obama admin use warrantless "wiretapping" on other candidates besides @realDonaldTrump?"http://circa.com/politics/circa-asks...g-on-americans …

Circa has formally requested that the Trump administration declassify records showing how often government officials have searched National Security Agency intercepts for intelligence on U.S. presidential candidates, members of Congress, journalists, clergy, lawyers, federal judges and doctors and how often such Americans had their identities unmasked by the intelligence community after Barack Obama made it easier to do so in 2011....
(also a video) http://circa.com/politics/circa-asks...g-on-americans

President Obama's team sought NSA intel on thousands of Americans during the 2016 electionby John Solomon - May 4, 2017

During his final year in office, President Obama's team significantly expanded efforts to search National Security Agency intercepts for information about Americans, distributing thousands of intelligence reports across government with the unredacted names of U.S. residents during the midst of a divisive 2016 presidential election.

The data, made available this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, provides the clearest evidence to date of how information accidentally collected by the NSA overseas about Americans was subsequently searched and disseminated after President Obama loosened privacy protections to make such sharing easier in 2011 in the name of national security. A court affirmed his order.

The revelations are particularly sensitive since the NSA is legally forbidden from directly spying on Americans and its authority to conduct warrantless searches on foreigners is up for renewal in Congress later this year. And it comes as lawmakers investigate President Trump's own claims that his privacy was violated by his predecessor during the 2016 election.

In all, government officials conducted 30,355 searches in 2016 seeking information about Americans in NSA intercept metadata, which include telephone numbers and email addresses. The activity amounted to a 27.5 percent increase over the prior year and more than triple the 9,500 such searches that occurred in 2013, the first year such data was kept.

The government in 2016 also scoured the actual contents of NSA intercepted calls and emails for 5,288 Americans, an increase of 13 percent over the prior year and a massive spike from the 198 names searched in 2013.

The searches ultimately resulted in 3,134 NSA intelligence reports with unredacted U.S. names being distributed across government in 2016, and another 3,354 reports in 2015. About half the time, U.S. identities were unredacted in the original reports while the other half were unmasked after the fact by special request of Obama administration officials.

Among those whose names were unmasked in 2016 or early 2017 were campaign or transition associates of President Trump as well as members of Congress and their staffers, according to sources with direct knowledge.

The data kept by ODNI is missing some information from one of the largest consumers of NSA intelligence, the FBI, and officials acknowledge the numbers are likely much higher when the FBI’s activity is added.
(more, video) http://circa.com/politics/president-...-2016-election

Rand Paul wrote to Trump about spying allegations in April

Rand received info from an anonymous source, Sent Trump a letter about it on April 10, 2017. Sent additional copies to Bannon and Priebus.

Rand Paul: Obama may have spied on me, other lawmakers using NSA interceptsby John Solomon - May 5, 2017

Paul quietly asked for the probe nearly a month ago in a letter to Trump that was obtained by Circa.

"An anonymous source recently alleged to me that my name, as well as the names of other Members of Congress, were unmasked, queried or both, in intelligence reports of intercepts during the prior administration," Paul wrote Trump in a letter dated April 10.

"In light of the revelations that the names of persons associated with the Trump campaign were unmasked, I believe the allegations that myself and other elected members of the legislative branch may have also been unmasked or caught in intelligence gathering warrants investigation."

The emergence of the letter, which also was copied to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon, comes after Circa recently reported that members of Congress and their staffs have been unmasked in NSA intelligence reports as frequently as once a month since President Obama loosened privacy protections back in 2011...

...Paul's letter offered no further detail on the source of the allegations of any specific incident or intercepts.

A source in the intelligence community told Circa on Friday that they were unaware of any unmaskings of NSA intercepts that occurred in 2016 when Paul was running for president that would have required a notification to Congress. The source did not know about prior years.

“We’ve had several people come to us and say that it happened. I don’t have access to that information, but I’ve been very concerned that too many Americans’ information is being culled through without a warrant,” he told Breitbart News.

“I don’t have any facts to say it happened,” he said. “But numerous sources are coming to us saying it did happen so I want to search through, find out why I wasn’t notified. Was it on purpose?”

“There’s a lot of things to be found out, particularly since we found out that Susan Rice was unmasking people and we need to know was there a political motivation, because one of the real dangers in a free society is if government gets so powerful it’s listening to all of our phone calls, the possibility of extortion, the possibility of blackmail — all of that goes up exponentially,” he said.

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

Yeah but isn't it a little different if the Obama administration used it for political gain against Rand Paul, or even against the American public? It's one thing to look at my records, but an entire different thing to look at the records of people that hold public office and use it for nefarious reasons. It's one thing to interfere with hundreds of elections outside of our country, but interfering with our elections to me is worse. You can argue killing one person is just as wrong as killing 10,000 people, but to me it's worse. Those bastards who are working for our country, collecting a paycheck from our taxes should be doing it to protect things like our election, our election is scared, it is precious, and I just hope that we haven't forgotten that as a country as a result of this fake news election.

Yeah but isn't it a little different if the Obama administration used it for political gain against Rand Paul, or even against the American public? It's one thing to look at my records, but an entire different thing to look at the records of people that hold public office and use it for nefarious reasons. It's one thing to interfere with hundreds of elections outside of our country, but interfering with our elections to me is worse. You can argue killing one person is just as wrong as killing 10,000 people, but to me it's worse. Those bastards who are working for our country, collecting a paycheck from our taxes should be doing it to protect things like our election, our election is scared, it is precious, and I just hope that we haven't forgotten that as a country as a result of this fake news election.

Yep. I worry more about the politicians of the future, though. Imagine growing up with your whole life being recorded and monitored... They'll know every possible pressure point, every dirty secret, every indication of an independent thought. There's no way a real person will ever make it through.

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

Don't pay the media to attack Rand
Every time you click on the attack articles, you are literally paying them for attacking Rand. If you really want people to see, quote the entire article and break the link.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he has asked the intelligence community and White House for any evidence that he was surveilled by former President Barack Obama.
"I have formally requested from the WH and the Intel Committees info on whether I was surveilled by Obama admin and or the Intel community!" Paul tweeted Friday.
The tweet appears to build off of President Trump's claim, presented without evidence, that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during last year's presidential race.

James Woods on Obama: He’s the ‘gift from hell’The Washington Times ThursdayThe latest came this week, in response to a report from British press that revealed the National Security Agency commonly provides Israel with intelligence data — without first stripping out private and personal information on American citizens. The Guardian in London reported the item, the latest in its coverage of document leaks from Edward Snowden.
Mr. Woods unleashed his views of the matter — and of Mr. Obama's role in allowing the practice to occur — on Twitter.http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/12/james-woods-obama-hes-gift-hell/

Kucinich knows it happened

Woah. Forgot about Kucinich's claim. He says he was wiretapped while he was speaking to Gaddafi's son and trying to prevent Obama/Clinton from destroying Libya. Intel was tracking Kucinich's resolution to try and prevent the war. He only found out about it two years after he left congress - because two reporters from the Washington Times played a recording of it for him. Here's that video.

Sen. Rand Paul, the former Republican presidential candidate and vocal champion of civil liberties, has received allegations that the Obama administration sought intercepted intelligence from the National Security Agency on him and other members of Congress and has asked President Donald Trump to conduct a formal investigation, Circa has learned.

Paul quietly asked for the probe nearly a month ago in a letter to Trump that was obtained by Circa.

"An anonymous source recently alleged to me that my name, as well as the names of other Members of Congress, were unmasked, queried or both, in intelligence reports of intercepts during the prior administration," Paul wrote Trump in a letter dated April 10.

"In light of the revelations that the names of persons associated with the Trump campaign were unmasked, I believe the allegations that myself and other elected members of the legislative branch may have also been unmasked or caught in intelligence gathering warrants investigation."

The emergence of the letter, which also was copied to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon, comes after Circa recently reported that members of Congress and their staffs have been unmasked in NSA intelligence reports as frequently as once a month since President Obama loosened privacy protections back in 2011.

Paul's letter offered no further detail on the source of the allegations of any specific incident or intercepts.

A source in the intelligence community told Circa on Friday that they were unaware of any unmaskings of NSA intercepts that occurred in 2016 when Paul was running for president that would have required a notification to Congress. The source did not know about prior years.

Usually if the intelligence community reveals the identity of a lawmaker in an NSA intercept, Congress gets what is known as a Gates notification.

Paul has been a critic of the government use of NSA intercepts to spy on Americans and championed other civil liberty causes, most famously conducting a 13-hour filllibuster in 2013 on the Senate floor to raise concerns that U.S. millitary could use drones to strike U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

Considering that it is widely thought that the Democrats believed before the POTUS election cycle started that Rand was the greatest threat to winning with a cross over appeal, it is highly likely that they did spy on him.

Twitter: B4Liberty@USAB4L"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

I won't hold my breath on any real investigation into this ever taking place, though its pretty much out in the open that the NSA continuously has access to millions of American's communications, so maybe Rand is just trying to direct attention back to that... I think a majority of the public has had it beat into their heads that that i just par for the course in our brave new world.

Yeah but isn't it a little different if the Obama administration used it for political gain against Rand Paul, or even against the American public? It's one thing to look at my records, but an entire different thing to look at the records of people that hold public office and use it for nefarious reasons. It's one thing to interfere with hundreds of elections outside of our country, but interfering with our elections to me is worse. You can argue killing one person is just as wrong as killing 10,000 people, but to me it's worse. Those bastards who are working for our country, collecting a paycheck from our taxes should be doing it to protect things like our election, our election is scared, it is precious, and I just hope that we haven't forgotten that as a country as a result of this fake news election.

Rand already gave the hint he was in particular being "wired" if that is the right colloquial to use . . .

With Hannity he said that "When they (NSA/intel) are listening in on Congress phone conversations, they should just hang up."
It was around the time the NSA computer caught an accusation on the US Senate floor a Senator from Kentucky was working as a double agent or something (?)